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Originally Posted by tjts1
if you want to reduce traffic congestion and improve fuel economy you don't need a 55mph speed limit. You need to reduce the size of the cars and increase the speed of traffic. Its the only way.
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And you thought Jeremy Clarkson was all about fast cars and naked women.
Jeremy Clarkson Nissan GT-R review | Driving - Times Online |
Wasn't the Kei-Car classification in existance in 1993? Didn't it go back to the 1950's to also encourage fuel conservation in a post-war resource-empty Japan? I think Jeremy might have been witnessing an after-effect of the Japanese asset bubble :
Japanese asset price bubble - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Japanese asset price bubble (バブル景気, baburu keiki?, lit. "bubble economy") was a time of skyrocketing land and stock prices in the Japanese economy, that peaked from 1986 to 1990 and hit bottom in its valuation of the Nikkei index in 2003. It is one of the more famous speculative bubbles in economic history.
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When I audited an Urban Planning class at UCLA, the professor said "Yes, traffic jams are bad, but they are also a sign of a booming economy". 1993 would have been 10 years before the Nikkei hit bottom in 2003.
I do agree that the definition of car "classes" should be based on engine displacement and length. I also agree the economy cars should have incentives like the Kei cars. Today's Honda Civic is the same or larger than a 1990 Honda Accord.
CarloSW2